CUBOID. LIVE. Julia Bruk’s unique virtual experience is described as a physical manifestation of social media interactivity and its effects on individuals and communities. Courtesy of CUBOID.LIVE.New media. If you’ve been to our events for the last three years, either virtually or in-person, you’ve probably heard this term a lot by now. It has become embedded in our mission and vision so much so that in 2021, we changed our name and added “media” to it: Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media (PJFM).
Indeed, we have changed our name a lot over the years. Many times! For some people, we’re just the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival. Sometimes, people will include Gershman in the name, a reference to the historic Gershman Y building where the organization originated from. Sometimes, we are just referred to as PJFF. Sometimes, they call us GPJFF. Sometimes, we’re just the Jewish film festival. Period.
Gershman. Jewish. New Media. Philadelphia. Film Festival. That Jewish film place in Philly. Which one is it?! We promise that Philadelphia Jewish Film and Media (PJFM) is now the official new name for this historic organization. And while PJFM is still home to the second longest-running Jewish film festival in the country (San Francisco Jewish Film Festival beats us by just a few months), the organization offers more than that. This is a film organization with year-round programming, including sneak previews and special events, both film- and new media-related.
So, what is new media, you may be wondering? Southern New Hampshire University defines it as “any media – from newspaper articles and blogs to music and podcasts – that are delivered digitally. From a website or email to mobile phones and streaming apps, any internet-related form of communication can be considered new media.” The Cambridge Dictionary, on the other hand, defines new media a little more broadly as “products and services that provide information or entertainment using computers or the internet, and not by traditional methods such as television and newspapers.”
Though defined in slightly different ways, there is one word that stands out with new media: digital. Digital content. Storytelling and non-fiction, just like we see in movies and on television, but done so through digital means; on our cellphones, computer screens, iPads, Tablets, virtual reality (VR), etc. Digital content on a multitude of platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, podcasts, etc. has become the most essential and tangible way for people of the world to display their creativity.
We sometimes forget about how prevalent new media has been in our lives and the number of celebrities who got their start developing their own content, not in front of a fancy Hollywood camera, but with their phones. By themselves. Social media and YouTube have been around for quite a while now. Vine, on the other hand, always come to my mind, at least, when I think about the formative years of new media. This video hosting service, founded in 2012 and closed in 2017, was the talk of the town. It was a free, downloadable phone app with one objective: film yourself under six seconds and then your video will play on a loop. A simple, yet oddly ingenious idea.
To say people went nuts for this app is an understatement. I remember being in my last year of college when Vine came out and it became the quintessential gateway for aspiring comedians to showcase their humor. Equally so, it was an opportunity for anonymous musicians to display their talent to the world. Such is the remarkable case with Shawn Mendes, one of today’s most accomplished musical artists. Before he was the Shawn Mendes, he was just a teenager on Vine, posting snippets of him singing. Without this app and its feature to allow people to create their own digital content (silly, serious, musical, whatever!), icons like Shawn Mendes may have never become the legends they are today.
The more you think about it, new media has especially skyrocketed over the past decade. It exploded even more when COVID-19 put everyone in lockdown. Stuck at home, content creators rushed to their devices and started filming, either for fun or (at least for me) as a coping mechanism. Podcasts have rapidly expanded as well and become the go-to source for people looking to listen to any topic imaginable. TikTok exploded in 2020, as users began posting, day-after-day, a variety of content. Some of it is hilarious and silly, like someone doing a funny dance, let’s say. Some videos are instructive, like someone starting their own cooking channel. Some videos are simply newsworthy or political, like a stranger who just likes to put his/her/their own thoughts across. Digital content is like a digital diary or portfolio. It has changed the world, and with its ever-growing popularity, we know it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.
We first incorporated new media into our programming in December of 2019 in the aptly titled Jewish New Media Festival at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History. It was a first for us, an opportunity to exhibit a variety of Jewish new media artists and content creators, from Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman, the hilarious stars of the Yiddish YouTube series, YidLife Crisis, to Nimrod Shanit, director and producer of Holy City VR, an interactive, virtual reality experience that transports viewers to Jerusalem.
New media programming has continued into PJFM’s programming since then. In our 40th Jewish Film Festival in November of 2020, Ariel Rivka Dance debuted their Unorthodox number, a virtual dance – inspired by Netflix’s Unorthodox mini-series – that speaks to the juxtaposition of grungy raw realness and the simple, polite version of ourselves we often portray to the world. Last year, we collaborated with the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival for Beshert/Romantic Destiny, a collection of online burlesque performances revolved around the Jewish concept of “bashert” (romantic destiny).
On this blog and in our organization’s yearly programming, we are delighted to increase awareness of new media and celebrate the widening talents and accomplishments of so many creative content artists throughout the world.